NJ Education Report

According to an inside source, some New Jersey school districts distributed “cheat sheets” last month for students taking the state’s standardized tests called Start Strong. It is unclear how many school districts used them or whether they were used for more than 6th and 7th grade math.

The state has yet to release the results of Start Strong, although the Murphy Administration’s Department of Education has had the results for some time and, in fact, districts were told they would receive the results quickly in order to ensure instruction was informed by student academic needs. The DOE’s presentation for Start Strong says the assessments “allow districts to collect timely, actionable, standards-based student performance data at the beginning of the school year.”

Here are the “cheat sheets,” which alert classroom teachers to only use them on Start Strong and not on the spring state standardized assessments.